Page 3 of The Penalty Box

Grabbing a chicken sandwich, chips, and Cherry Coke out of the fridge for myself—because this girl here embraces her muffin top—we both go to the register to pay for our food before we walk to our usual table.

“What has you in a mood?” Jessica asks, giving me a side look. Her tongue peeks out of her mouth as she puts dressing on her salad, mindful that she only uses half of it. Like seriously, who eats Caesar salad with half the dressing? It’d be like going to the ice cream shop and only getting vanilla. Or having chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips inside. Sacrilege if you ask me.

“Nothing…” I say, shrugging lightly.

The last thing I want to do right now is rehash what happened with Liam, which will only bring out the question of my secret crush on my best friend. Well, secret except for Jessy. I don’t think I can hide anything from this girl.

“Oh, please, don’t even try to fool me.” She lifts her head and looks around wearily before she leans closer to me and whispers, “It’s Liam, isn’t it? I saw you two enter the cafeteria. For a moment there you looked pretty tense.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumble before taking a big bite of my sandwich. Anything so I can avoid this conversation.

Jessy has been trying to convince me for months to come clean to Liam and see what happens, but she doesn’t get it. You can’t just come clean to your best friend about your changing feelings toward them. It will mess up the whole relationship and possibly—who am I trying to kid?Most likelyis a way more fitting term—destroy it altogether.

Thankfully, before I can even manage to swallow, Liam and his friends join us at our table. Their trays overflow with food, but then again they’re all teenage boys in the middle of a growth spurt—I kid you not, those dudes seem to grow an inch every day—and they play sports. I don’t mind the overabundance of food, especially if Liam gets something I like so I can snatch it off his plate, but the weird combinations they eat sometimes make my stomach roll in disgust. Just the other day I saw Mike eat a PBJ sandwich with pickles. Weird pregnancy cravings have nothing on these guys.

Liam slides on the chair next to me, his long limbs barely fitting underneath the table. His leg brushes against mine, making my heart skip a beat and hammer loudly against my chest when he doesn’t pull back.

Calm down, Evie. It’s not like it’s a big deal. You’re used to touching Liam.

“What’cha got there?” he asks as he shoves a handful of fries in his mouth. So many that some of them are hanging out of his mouth as he chews.

My nose wrinkles as I elbow him in the side. Playful,friendlyinteraction. “Do you have to be so disgusting?”

Mischief twinkles in his brown irises as he looks at me, chewing even louder and more obnoxious for my benefit. “Always.”

Rolling my eyes at him, I make a point of moving away. It’s not a lot, barely enough to make a gap between us, but it gives me a little bit of my sanity back.

“I don’t know where you put all of that shit,” Jessy comments, looking over all the food on our table, but I can see the longing in her eyes. I seriously don’t know why she’s doing this to herself. It’s not like shehasto lose some weight. I just hope it’s all in her head and it’ll pass because the last thing I want is for her to get hurt over something like this.

I mean, I’m not cheerleader material, and I never wanted to be one, and while some of the girls Jessy hangs out with are really nice, others have a big stick stuck up their asses.

Liam puts down his burger, taking a paper napkin he taps at his mouth as he finishes chewing—you see, he does have manners, he just doesn’t want to use them around me—before he flashes Jessy a grin. “I’m a growing boy.”

“Well, you better watch out on what you’re putting in that growing body.” I take a fry off his plate and dip it into ketchup. “Out of all the jocks, hockey players are known to get a big gut before anybody else. With all that padding, it’s so easy to hide it.”

The dead silence falls over the table, all the heads turning toward me.

“You didn’t just offend all the hockey players while stealing my fries.” Liam’s mouth hangs open in astonishment.

“Dude, buuuurn,” Jack, another Wolf, snickers from the other side of the table.

“I’m just stating the facts.” I shrug as another fry flies into my mouth. Yum. There is nothing better than crispy, salty fries with ketchup. Leaning over the table, I look at Jack. “I don’t see why you’re snickering over there. You’re a hockey player too.”

That earns him some teasing from the rest of the group. Liam, Jack, and Mike have been a trio of friends since they started playing hockey.

“Did you tell her?” This comes from Mike.

I look between them, curious and slightly confused. “Tell me what?”

Liam’s lips tilt in a small smile, and if I’m not mistaken there is a slight blush covering his cheeks.

Why is he blushing?

“The coach made some changes for our upcoming game…”

But before he gets to finish, Mike interrupts him. “The dude will be playing as a part of the second line this Friday.”

“Oh my God! That’s amazing.” I jump at him, my arms wrapping around his neck in a tight, side hug. “Congratulations, Liam.”

---